


A Study of the Nesting Instinct

by fruitbattery



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Forced Feelings Talk, Huddling For Warmth, Multi, Other, Please Sir A Brain Cell, The Aurora Is A Little Bit Of A Bastard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23555836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fruitbattery/pseuds/fruitbattery
Summary: Marius has a slight issue, and a slightly bigger problem. Can he solve both at once? Tune in to find out!
Relationships: Ivy Alexandria/Raphaella la Cognizi/Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum
Comments: 8
Kudos: 114
Collections: Mechs Fic Exchange





	A Study of the Nesting Instinct

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CertifiedPissWizard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CertifiedPissWizard/gifts).



Marius is  _ cold.  _ Cold, and stiff, and it’s really inconvenient that he can’t control his body to, like, metabolize faster or something. Frankly, it’s homophobic of himself. His flesh hand has slowed down considerably, which makes it harder to play any of his instruments at the speed required for him to actually practice them properly (even immortals need regular practice!). So he’s here, shivering in his too-bare bed, cursing himself for not picking up one of those really nice down quilts on that goose planet a few years back before Ashes burned the factory down. He knows they’re a few months out from their next destination, aka his next chance to shop for bedding, so instead of disembarking to find a home goods store to rob, he politely clears his throat.

“Aurora?”

A screen slides down from the ceiling of his bedroom.  **Yes?**

“Is it possible you could turn up the heat?”

**Nastya has a fever.**

Marius frowns. He hasn’t been ill for millennia, but perhaps those who were mechanized by Carmilla are different? He’s no doctor– well, actually– yeah, he’s no doctor, but something about the situation seems a little fishy.

“Could you not cool down only her room?”

He’s not sure if it’s possible for text on a screen to sound like it’s lying, but if it is, this text does.  **Nastya has not gotten around to updating my HVAC since before you came onboard, Marius.**

He frowns. “Well, that doesn’t seem very…” Marius cuts himself off abruptly as a panel slides open and a quartet of very intimidating guns slide out, pointed directly at him. “It… doesn’t seem very… unreasonable! Nastya is a very busy, talented, essential, lovely woman!”

He waits for a second, hoping it’s enough, and sure enough the guns retract and the panel slides closed.

**Watch it, Marius. :)**

Marius shakes his head, and gathers his heaviest blanket (it’s not very heavy) around himself for warmth before wandering off down the hallway. Maybe he’ll find someone else to complain with who’s also having this problem. The blanket trailing behind him kind of makes him feel like a little kid, but the warmth is worth it.

Marius won’t often admit it to himself when he gets lost in the Aurora’s many twisty little passages, but he’s getting to that point now. He hasn’t seen a patch of corridor he recognizes in a good half an hour, and the oppressive cold is growing steadily worse. He’s sure, now, that the Aurora is doing this on purpose, but he doesn’t want to accuse her of anything and risk getting shot and ruining his blanket. So he just trudges onwards, blowing on his hand to keep it from stiffening too much with the cold.

It’s not long before he hears voices and laughter drifting down the hallway towards him, and he speeds up. People. Yes. People are what he needs, with their general heat and warmth and temperature and oh god it’s so fucking cold plesse help. He starts to see bright, flickering light up ahead, correlating with where the voices seem to be coming from, and it’s not long before he’s on the threshold of a completely unfamiliar room.

It’s incredibly spacious, completely carpeted, with a sunken pit in the middle that he’s pretty sure has a giant mattress for a floor. The whole room is filled with pillows and blankets, except for one corner that has what appears to be a contained gas fireplace. There are several cabinets along the right-hand wall, mostly wooden, but one is glass-fronted and clearly contains many, many bottles of nice wine.

What’s most pressing, though, is that there are people in the cozy pit. Lyf, Raph, and Ivy are curled up in the center, all wrapped individually in at least one layer each of blanket, and then piled on top of each other and topped with more. Currently, they seem to be in a train of hair-braiding– Ivy is braiding Lyf’s hair, and Lyf is finger-combing through Raphaella’s in preparation to braid it, and it’s all soft and comfy looking enough to stop Marius in his tracks. 

None of them seem to notice immediately when he comes in, but they certainly do notice when he starts stammering and backs out. “I– I’m sorry, guys, I didn’t realize– I should go. Did not want to intrude on something so private–”

His feet are carrying him backwards, but his mind is screaming  _ stay, stay,  _ and he doesn’t know what to do. Lyf makes that decision for him.

“Hey, you look cold. Are you cold?”

“I look cold? No, I’ve never been warmer in my life. I’ve gotta–”

“Your lips are literally blue, Marius.”

Marius’s hand comes up to feel his face. Huh. That’s new. He didn’t know his face could  _ get  _ that cold anymore. “Fine, yes, I’m cold, but you all seem very busy.”

This time, it’s Raphaella who speaks up. “Marius, would you like to come warm up with us?”

He feels kind of stupid for assuming they don’t want him, now. “Yes. Yes, I really would, please god get me in there. I am so fucking cold.” Now that he’s said it, no amount of pulling the blanket around him will seem to stop his shivering, so he heads gratefully towards the pit.

“Shoes off,” says Ivy without looking up from Lyf’s hair, and Marius toes them off at the edge of the pit before gently stepping down into it. Raphaella and Lyf are shifting easily to make a little divot for him, and the fireplace in the corner is blasting the room with heat, and a little of the ice is melting off him (it’s metaphorical ice, he’s like 79% sure) as he settles in.

Raphaella has evidently decided she would like the hands combing her hair to belong to a violinist, so she tugs Marius’s hands into place, and in return Lyf gets their hands into Marius’s hair and  _ oh. There’s  _ what he needed. Warmth, yes, but he’s sort of forgotten to be around people and have contact for a while, huh? Raph’s hair is incredibly tangled, so he starts working through it, and she leans against him. He can see the edge of her smile, and it makes him smile too.

There’s silence for a bit, and Marius is momentarily afraid that he’s fucked up the dynamic somehow by interrupting. Then Raphaella starts up a [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jAGtfi8S4&t=18s). It’s not one Marius recognizes, but that’s not uncommon, and so he sits and listens to her riffing up and down the first line before starting in earnest. Ivy perks up and joins in, and together they spin a  [ tale ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9jAGtfi8S4) of some guy named Lee Harvey. Best Marius can tell, he might’ve killed someone important– always a plus, in his book– so he quickly picks up on the chorus and sings, adding his low harmony to Ivy’s high and Raph’s melody and Lyf’s absent-minded tapping on his head to the beat.

When they finish the song, Marius feels absolutely suffused with warmth and love. He’s not sure when the tray of snacks on the edge of the pit appeared, but Ivy graciously hands him down his favorite peanut butter pretzels and Raph her Cheetos and requisite chopsticks and Lyf their…. straight up package of sliced pepperoni. Sure. If they’re stuck with this fucker, Marius’ll be sure to be careful of their breath. Ivy takes her chocolates and smiles gratefully at the ceiling.

Ah. So the Aurora  _ did  _ instigate this whole affair. Marius calls out.

“Aurora, dearest?”

A panel slides away in the ceiling over his head, and a blank screen waits expectantly.

“Am I to believe that you– please don’t shoot me– made me cold on purpose?”

**Yes.**

Marius isn’t expecting that. Glancing over, he notices the other three are hiding smiles with various degrees of success.

“Did these three put you up to it?”

**These three and Nastya, yes.**

“Okay, why?”

**Ask them. I merely assisted.**

Marius turns to Lyf. “Why?”

They shake their head. “Marius, when I was brought on board, I thought it was clear that I wanted to spend time with all three of you. But you’ve been avoiding us. Why?”

Well, there’s the hard-hitting question he’s been waiting for. Just…. right out of the gate. He hems, and he haws, but it doesn’t take him long to spit it out.

“I honestly thought the three of you were in some sort of polycule….. situation, and I didn’t want to intrude.” There. If they want to call him stupid, they can call him stupid.

Raph rolls her eyes. “Marius, you can really be stupid sometimes.” There it is. “We… really aren’t sure where we stand, honestly– we’ve been talking about being… something, but we aren’t sure yet. But what makes you think you aren’t invited?”

Marius feels his cheeks prickle with a sudden heat. “Uh, invited? You never asked or breathed a word of this to me!”

Raphaella looks confused. “Lyf, weren’t you going to…”

Lyf shakes their head. “You asked me right as I was going planetside. I asked Ivy to tell him.”

Ivy squirms slightly under the sudden scrutiny of three pairs of eyes. “I… um….” She takes a deep breath. “I’m-really-sorry-cause-I-forgot-cause-I-was-reading-and–”

Raph catches her flailing hand and rubs it soothingly. “It’s alright, Ivy. We know you didn’t mean to.” She turns back to Marius. “Marius, we don’t know what we want to call ourselves, but would you like to be included in that conversation?”

Lyf pipes up. “And, well, be included in ‘us’?”

Raph rolls her eyes. “Honestly, Lyf, I thought that was implied–”

Marius interrupts her, a grin of relief splitting his face in two. “Yeah, I think I’d like that. Thanks for clearing that up, gang.”

He settles back into the pile, but this time he leans fully onto Lyf’s lap. The heat and warmth and renewed playing with his hair are sending him farther toward sleep than he expected, but he manages to ask, “Why not just ask to spend time with me?”

He can feel Lyf shrug. “Honestly, I wanted to do just that, but Raph and Ivy know you better, so I was overruled. They thought you’d get too squirrely and nervous.”

Marius puts on a hurt expression, but he knows they’re probably right. He hopes that whatever this new, exciting thing is, this thing he finds himself shying away from thinking about lest he flail with sudden glee, it will help him get his communicating act together. They’ll have time for that later, though, so for now he snuggles further into the blanket nest and lets himself drift, safe in the belly of this ship that he knows wants the best for him after all.


End file.
